Miguel headed towards the sisters's house, but he couldn't wake them up, so he decided to leave them alone. The problem was that he found himself without much to do.
For a moment he thought about visiting Krieg again, but changed his mind when he remembered that Zack was guarding the outside with his team. Miguel had to admit that, after seeing the monstrosity, the Breeder didn't scare him as much, but he knew it wouldn't be an easy fight either. That zombie had gotten stronger, the previous attack on the monstrosity proved that.
That meant there would probably be deaths, himself included, if he was unlucky. At that moment, Miguel arrived next to Zack, who was watching the sky with Anin.
"There aren't many Windwalkers, are there?"
"No, that monstrosity has done us a great favor."
Miguel nodded at Zack's words and then they both fell silent. The soldier looked at Anin, who was on the roof of a car and staring at block 3.
"Any idea what conquered block 3?" Miguel suddenly asked Anin. He shook his head in concern.
"There is not the slightest trace of it. It's the same situation we found when we went in earlier."
Miguel frowned.
"Do you think so? In that case, do you think you guys took territory from the Breeder when you went in?"
Anin glanced at Miguel momentarily before continuing to watch.
"I don't know, Adam didn't mention anything of the sort."
It was likely that there wasn't even an enemy present in the buildings that Zack had cleared. He had left the area before entering all the buildings, so block 3 had never belonged to the shelter entirely. There was a possibility that a zombie in one of these buildings was responsible for the capture. Still, there was no sign of a powerful zombie, which made Zack nervous.
Miguel looked at the building he and Leonard entered to observe the monstrosity. That was supposed to be one of the buildings that Zack had not cleared, but even so, the number of zombies inside was much smaller than expected. There were no powerful zombies in it, which was very strange. This, however, followed the pattern they were beginning to observe. Miguel suspected that the Breeder was the cause, perhaps its presence drew the attention of other powerful zombies in the housing estate and, just as Miguel had fled to the shelter of Nuevo Sol, the zombies approached the Breeder.
Miguel looked towards block 2, where the Breeder should be somewhere. How many zombies had he already gathered and when did he plan to attack? Would he even attack or would he build up more and more strength? Miguel didn't know why, but he suspected the latter wouldn't happen. In the last few days he had changed his mind on what they should do, as he now believed he understood, if only a little, the zombie mentality. Consuming and evolving was the top priority, so this Breeder would undoubtedly attack soon, as his group was the closest source of food.
"Are you scared of something, old man?"
Miguel turned to look at Zack.
"Yes, I'm afraid that Breeder will attack us soon, I just hope it's tomorrow and not tonight."
The smile Zack was wearing was wiped off his face.
"Do you think we can hold out?"
"I hope so. We've done all we can, but there are so few of us."
"Well, but I'm not going to die here, and if things go wrong I won't hesitate to run."
"At least you're honest. But I think we'll get through this somehow. It won't be easy, though."
Zack shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch.
About 5 hours later, at about 7 p.m., the ceremony was ready. The place where everyone had decided to cremate the corpses was in a garden adjacent to the superblock. There, a few hours earlier, Adam cremated the corpses of all the zombies they had killed in the last few days.
Because of this, the garden became a layer of ashes, on which the corpses of all the humans who had died were deposited. There were many more than Adam expected, so he decided not to count them. Each of the corpses was covered with a white sheet to prevent the wounds they had received from being visible. Adam watched the scene in silence.
Adam fixed his gaze on Jane's body, which was hidden under the sheet. He couldn't see the wound on her chest, but Adam was reminded again and again of Jane lying on the floor covered in blood, which sent a shiver down his spine.
Beside him, Miguel also watched the scene solemnly, along with Leonard and Ivy, both silent. Noah joined them soon after, along with Marlem and Miriam, who couldn't stop crying.
"When do you think it will be our turn?" Noah asked.
"You'd better shut your mouth, this is not the time to say such things."
To everyone's surprise, Noah didn't answer Marlen, he just continued to watch the dead in silence.
Zack, meanwhile, watched the scene from the first floor of the superblock. From where he stood he could not see the ceremony very well, but this did not matter much to him. He didn't see much point in this kind of event; for him, the dead were already gone and it was better to leave them that way.
Tarin had not even attended, not because he didn't care, but partly because he felt guilty for not having been there when it happened. Just now he was at home, in his mother's workshop. Tracel had told her about the possibility of leveling up by doing activities of her Class, so she, for the first time, was beginning to recover by immersing herself in her favorite pastime and the profession she had previously lived by, pottery.
Tarin was at least relieved to see his mum working on her pots again, so it didn't take long for him to get back to what he had been trying to figure out for a long time. Learning [Fireball] was proving very difficult, but he believed it was not impossible. He just had to practice more. That was what he was good at, concentrating on a specific task and not thinking about the outside world.
At the ceremony, all the survivors looked at Adam, who pulled out his flamethrower and fired. The corpses soon caught fire.
Everyone watched as the flames consumed the corpses at great speed. Many survivors moved away, as the smell of burning flesh was nauseating, but Adam had grown accustomed to it. He knew full well that this was not the way to cremate a body, but there was no other option. Besides, he found that his fire was capable of reducing almost anything to ashes if enough time passed.
"I'm sorry Jane, I hope you can forgive me, wherever you are," he whispered, unheard. To his surprise, he no longer felt so sad or depressed about what had happened. Perhaps he was more insensitive than he thought. He and Jane had been friends for years. Not very close, but the two of them got along well.
Adam thought again of his sister and his parents. It seemed like ages since he'd last thought about them. How would he react if he received news of either of them dying? He didn't know, and it was a matter he preferred not to think about.
He thought about saying a few words to them all, but couldn't think of any. What else could he say? Apologize for letting them die? Adam may have felt some guilt, but he wasn't stupid either. Accepting full responsibility for the deaths was foolish. The main culprits were those who had invented the whole system, whoever they were. However, on this, very personally, He felt a certain ambivalence. On the one hand, the death toll was horrible, but on the other hand, his life was much more interesting.
Was he a bad person for thinking like that? Maybe, but as time went on, it mattered less and less to him.
The bodies were soon devoured by the fire and Adam extinguished the rest. The ceremony was simple and quick. However, there was another problem to attack. Miguel spoke to Adam and informed him of the bad news that Carlos had, so it was time to try to keep things from getting even more out of control. Adam looked at Tracel and he nodded.
"Wait a minute! I think we need to talk."
Tracel's voice made all the survivors look at him. Some of them were already a little way out of the area, but Miguel stopped them and told them that it was important for them to listen. Adam looked at the survivors and couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He would rather face a group of Zombies than have to deal with this, but it was necessary.